When people think of the New England Patriots football team, their success over nearly the last 2 decades is what likely comes to mind. From 5 Super Bowl titles to longtime quarterback Tom Brady, it’s not surprising. However not everything with the team has always been sunshine and rainbows.

I know – as a longtime fan and season ticket holder, I lived through some of the embarrassing times of the Pats. However these stories stretch back even before I was born! The scrappy, low-budgeted team that didn’t have a set home stadium for its first decade that became one of the most valuable, treasured – and hated – team; it’s a Cinderella story.

Sean Glennon tells many of the positive and not-so positive stories in The Good The Bad The Ugly New England Patriots, chronicling nearly the first half-century of the team. I knew this would be a great book as I really enjoyed Glennon’s first book on the team, This Pats Year, which chronicled one season of following the team and their fans. I found the book in final boxes I unpacked after a recent move, and had forgotten I had it. Where it was a treat to find it, I don’t remember when or how I had acquired it. All things considered, I have a few takeaways for both fans and non-fans of the team.

I had forgotten many stories about the Patriots – There were a lot of nuances and details of some of the highs and lows of the team over the years I had simply forgotten. Call it what you like, but many times as I was reading the pages of this book, I said a lot of “oh, yea’s” and “wow’s” to some of the tales told by Glennon. That alone made reading them along with the stories I remembered an enjoyable experience.

Journals like this need to be updated – It wasn’t until I was about a quarter way thru the book that I looked and found it came out in 2008 – 10 years ago! Why it took me so long to read it I can’t say, but I am glad that I finally did. As a lot has transpired with the team since then, it would be great to read an update to it. I won’t hold my breath on that thought for when I tweeted Glennon about it, I didn’t get the sense he shared my sentiment!

Where The Good The Bad The Ugly New England Patriots is written for fans of the team, anyone who is a football fan, especially those who lived through the years covered in the book, would find it a good read. Which is what I hope my friend whom I gave the book to felt as well, as he also lives away from New England and these kinds of stories may also elicit the same responses in him they did for me.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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